Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenison, Robert (1649-1688)
JENISON, ROBERT, the younger (1649–1688), witness to the Popish plot, born in 1649, grand-nephew of the preceding, was second son of John Jenison of High Walworth, Durham, and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Pierson. He spent some time at the jesuit college at Douay, after which he was on 17 June 1676 admitted to Gray's Inn (Foster, Register of Gray's Inn). Emulating the example of Titus Oates, Jenison and his cousin, John Smith, who had previously been confessor to the Jenison family at Walworth, concocted narratives in support of the alleged Popish plot. These statements Jenison presented to the king and council at Hampton Court on 7 Aug. 1679, and to the House of Commons on 9 Nov. 1680. Both Jenison and Smith pretended that the falsity of the dying confession of William Ireland [q. v.], one of the first victims in 1679 of Oates's revelations, had so appalled them as to convert them to protestantism. Jenison published his ‘Informations’ in 1680, and revealed ‘the names of the four ruffians that were to murther the king at Windsor,’ one of whom (Kearney) was arrested, but he was not tried until June 1682, at which date neither Jenison nor Oates ventured to appear against him, and he was consequently released (Luttrell, Brief Relation, vols. i. ii. and iii.) Jenison also published ‘Depositions, with other material Evidences, plainly proving that William Ireland was in London on 19 Aug. 1678, notwithstanding his denial thereof both at his trial and execution.’ He gave evidence against Lord Stafford on the first day of his trial, 30 Nov. 1680, and incidentally denounced his elder brother, Thomas Jenison, a jesuit, who had been educated at St. Omers, and had died in Newgate on 25 Sept. 1679.
Robert succeeded to High Walworth upon the death of his father in 1680, but he sold the property almost immediately to Sir Ralph Jenison (1613–1700) of Elswick, near Newcastle, deputy lieutenant for the county of Northumberland, and died unmarried in December 1688. Sir Ralph, the purchaser of Walworth, was great-uncle of Francis Jenison, who sold the property in 1772 and emigrated to Germany, where he became chamberlain to the elector palatine and a count of the holy Roman empire, leaving numerous children, one of whom, Francis, count Jenison Walworth, is separately noticed.
[Ambrose Barnes's Memoirs, p. 498 (Surtees Soc.); Surtees's Hist. of Durham, iii. 316–20; Burnet's Hist. of his own Time, ii. 187–9; The Impartial Protestant Mercury, 1681 passim; The Informations of Robert Jennison of Graye's Inn, Introduction; Smith's Narrative, containing a further Discovery of the Popish Plot; Foley's Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, v. 632 sq., where a full account of Thomas Jenison and other members of the family who were jesuits is given.]